


Pick a Place to Die

by darkChronicler



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Trans Genji Shimada, Young Shimada Bros, transphobic/homophobic family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-09 00:56:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13470294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkChronicler/pseuds/darkChronicler
Summary: Before Genji's "death", Hanzo tries to reason with him.





	Pick a Place to Die

**Author's Note:**

> This one was originally based on the prompt, "Pick a place to die where it's high and dry," suggested by Quorgi on the McHanzo server over a year ago. Now I'm moving fics that I first posted on my tumblr over here because I'm trying to escape that hellsite.

Hanzo felt like he was going to throw up. The look on Genji’s face told him exactly what the end of this was going to be. The pack of giggling youths around him dispersed quickly, not even bothering to make excuses or say goodbyes. They knew as well what the darkness in the younger brother’s eyes meant. Only one remained.

“Genji-” she started, looking pale as a ghost even with bright orange hair braided around her head. 

“Get out of here, Yui,” Genji commanded. Bright arcade lights played on both their faces. A silent face-off. Finally, Yui looked away. Genji smiled, placed a hand on her arm. “Tell Jirou and the others not to wait up for me, okay?” Yui nodded uncertainly and, glaring at Hanzo, followed the others away. 

Another long silence, even heavier now that they were alone, hung between the two brothers like a boulder waiting to be dropped. Hanzo took a step forward. Genji stubbornly straightened his back and crossed his arms. Hanzo took a deep breath, and relayed his message, 

“The clan elders want to see you.”

“No they don’t. They want to see  _Setsuko,_ ” Genji spat the name like it was a curse. His face contorted into a scowl that suited him so badly Hanzo felt like he really might throw up. It hurt him to see Genji like this. Hurt him so badly to have to do this. He knew it hurt his brother so much more. 

“Just… pretend to be Setsuko. I will arrange something- you won’t have to hide much longer,” Hanzo offered, hoping against hopes that Genji would listen. 

Genji roared and kicked one of the arcade machines so hard that it dented and started hissing, dispensing an endless chain of tickets. 

“I’ve been pretending all my life! I’m done! Do you know how hard it is? How  _fucking_  painful to know that you can never show your own family who you are without being punished? Without being  _banished_?” 

Hanzo knew. He knew that pain in the way that the elders pushed him toward wealthy young women in the hopes of marrying into more money, more power, an heir. He knew it in the feelings of wrongness that sat heavy in his abdomen when, in his youth, the old housekeeper would ask if he had a girlfriend yet. He knew it in the catch in his breath, the shiver down his spine, the heat in his ears when a beautiful man looked into his eyes and smiled. Hanzo knew, and he stomped it down further. Genji had not finished.

“Well, Hanzo, I banish myself! If the Shimada-gumi will not have  _me_ , then they will not have me at all. Strike my name from the family records. I’m happy to be nobody if being nobody means being myself.” Hanzo growled. Couldn’t Genji make this easy, just once? He knew that Hanzo was only a messenger- that he had no choice. The head of the family was merely the hand of the elders. Hanzo could not defy them. 

“That is not your choice to make. I have been ordered to make you return- by any means necessary.” Genji laughed humorlessly. There was pain in his eyes now. Disappointment. Had he truly thought he could talk his way out?

“Finally, the truth. I am to return alive, or I am to return dead,” Genji sounded almost defeated, but he held his chin high. He would not go down easily. Hanzo stared at his brother. A part of him screamed to just  _let him go_ , but he could not. He felt like he was watching someone else’s movements, hearing another person’s words.

“If you are certain this is the path you want to take…” 

Genji’s dark eyes told him that he was.

“ ** _Then_   _pick a place to die_.** ”

**Author's Note:**

> Trans Genji is a headcanon I will never let go of. The reason Hanzo didn't recognize his voice in the Dragons short is because he finally got to do HRT with Overwatch. Although he had to go through a whole new kind of dysphoria from his cyborginess...


End file.
